Gifts From Middle Earth
by anjel-aranel
Summary: Landing in Middle Earth may be one thing. And meeting a gorgeous elf may be another. But falling in love with that elf and not wanting to leave is something completely different. Will Alina stay in Middle Earth or go back to her own world?
1. Chapter 1

I don't know how it happened. One day my best friend Jamie and I were living normal lives. The next…well, that's hard to explain. Maybe by telling you the story, I can begin to understand it myself.

One evening in July, Jamie and I were walking through…wait a minute. I'm sure you're probably wondering who I am and who Jamie is. My name is Alina Kitamura. When all of this happened, I was your normal 22-year-old college student living with my parents in Hilo, Hawaii. My best friend, Jamie Asato, had lived next door to me all our lives. We had grown up together.

Anyway, Jamie and I had been walking through the parking lot at the beach towards our cars when we noticed something strange just at the edge of the lot. It had been almost seven and getting dark so we were almost about to just ignore it. But I walked towards the sand anyway. It was like I was being drawn to it. At the edge of the parking lot there looked like there was a whirlpool in the air. The sand was swirling around, but stayed in that small area.

"What the hell is that?" Jamie asked me, as we approached it.

"I have no idea," I replied, "Want to find out?"

"Oh God," groaned Jamie, half-joking, "Every time you say that, we end up getting into trouble."

"Oh come on. We haven't gotten into any major trouble since high school. And what kind of trouble can we get into with flying sand?" I cautiously approached the swirling sand. It was strange. The air around it was completely still. I picked up a small rock that was on the asphalt of the parking lot and threw it at the whirlwind.

"It disappeared," Jamie said, her mouth dropping open.

"Holy moly." I picked up another rock and threw it. It disappeared too. "That's a cool trick. What is it?"

My parents had always told me not to touch anything that moved like it was alive but had no explanation. Unfortunately for them, I had never really listened. Of course, there were times when I should have just taken their advice.

"What are you doing?" asked Jamie, watching me reach towards the sand.

"There has to be something controlling this thing," I said, "Don't worry."

Jamie knelt down on the edge of the parking lot with me. I glanced around to see if anyone was staring at the two crazy girls looking at a bunch of swirling sand. No one was around. The beach and the parking lot were completely empty except for our cars and us.

I took a deep breath and touched the whirlwind. My fingers slipped through the sand and I could feel myself being yanked forward. I screamed as I fell through the air and landed hard on solid ground.

"Holy Shit," I said, slowly sitting up, "What the hell happened?"

Just as I was standing up, Jamie almost crashed down on me from out of nowhere.

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded, scrambling up.

"I don't know," I said, looking around, "Where are we?"

We definitely weren't in Hawaii anymore. There weren't any buildings or cars around. There was just green plants and flat land all around us. Bending down, I picked up the two rocks that we had thrown into the sand. The very rocks that had disappeared.

"It was like some sort of vortex into another world or something," I said, handing the rocks to Jamie.

"No, we can't be in another world. We're still in our world. Lina, there's no such thing as other dimensions."

"Then you explain it."

Throwing the rocks to the side, I shrugged. Jamie looked at me.

"You just HAD to go and figure out what that thing was, didn't you?"

"Shut up. You followed."

"I shouldn't have."

"There are two questions that need to be answered. Where are we and how to we get home?"

I picked up my backpack that had fallen. Looking around, I just randomly chose a direction and started walking.

"Where are you going?" Jamie asked.

"To find the nearest town and see if I can use a phone. Wait…a phone!"

Rummaging through one of the pockets of my bag, I found my cell phone. But as soon as I turned it on, I knew it wasn't going to be of any help. There wasn't any service in the area.

"Where the hell are we that we can't get cell phone reception?" asked Jamie.

"Almost anywhere on our island," I said, rolling my eyes as I shoved my phone back into my bag.

We continued walking in silence for a little while.

"This is crazy," Jamie said, breaking the silence, "We haven't seen anything around. No roads, no animals, nothing to let us know civilization is near."

"Well, look on the bright side," I said, "The scenery is really nice." Reaching back into my bag, I pulled my camera out and snapped a few pictures.

"Lina," said Jamie, "We have to figure out how to get home and where we are. It's not the time to be taking pictures."

"I can help you answer one of your questions," a voice said from behind us.

Jamie and I both jumped. Turning, we saw a tall man. His pale blond hair flowed straight down his back. He was dressed in dark greens and browns and had a bow and arrows in a quiver on his back. I have to admit, he was a little unusual, dressed like that in the middle of nowhere, but he was GORGEOUS!

"Hi," I said, smiling at him.

"Hello," the man replied.

"Where are we?" Jamie asked, before I could say anything else.

"You're in Middle Earth," said the man, "My name is Legolas. I live in Mirkwood, which is near here."


	2. Chapter 2

"Middle Earth?" Jamie looked at Legolas incredulously. "Right. And next you're going to tell me that you're an elf."

"Well," I said, "He does have the ears for it."

"Lina!" Jamie turned and looked at me. "He's clearly come kind of nutcase," she hissed.

"But a cute one if he is," I muttered, looking over her shoulder.

"I assure you I won't harm you," said Legolas, "Please, let me take you to Gondor. The race of Man live there."

"You're taking this Lord of the Rings thing a little too far," Jamie said.

"Lord of the Rings?" Legolas looked confused. "I do not know what you are talking about."

"Excuse us one minute," I said. I grabbed Jamie's arm and pulled her a few feet away from where we had been standing. "Are you crazy? I don't think he knows what you're talking about and you just keep insulting him."

"You just want us to follow him so you can flirt with him."

"I want to get out of here as much as you do," I said, "But I don't think we're going to be able to do that unless you trust him."

"He's some sort of Lord of the Rings freak. One of those…I don't know what you call them. They're like Trekkies except for Lord of the Rings."

"I don't think he is," I said. "I think we really might not be in our world anymore."

"And we fell into Middle Earth. Right. How could we go from our world into a fictional place?"

"I don't know. I just have a feeling that we need to trust him. I think it's the only way we'll get out of here."

"He appeared out of nowhere, Lina," said Jamie, "One minute we were all alone and the next he was standing right there."

"So? He's an elf. I don't think elves stomp around letting everyone know that they're coming." I sighed. "Look, we have two choices. Go with him and trust that he'll take us to someone who can help us get home or wander around this place by ourselves and take the chance of someone less…nice-looking…finding us."

I looked at Jamie. "Fine," she said shortly. "But if he ends up killing us, I'll never forgive you."

"Promises, promises," I muttered as I followed Jamie back towards where Legolas was standing.

"My name's Alina and that's Jamie," I said, as we followed Legolas across the beautiful landscape.

"You are not from Middle Earth, are you?" Legolas turned his head to look at me.

"We're from Earth," I said, "But not Middle Earth. At least…I don't think so anyway. It's hard to explain."

"How far is this place we're heading towards?" asked Jamie.

"A few days' walk," Legolas answered.

"A few DAYS?" Jamie's mouth fell open. "Oh no. We need to get home ASAP."

"Jamie, I don't think we have any choice. It's not like we can call a cab or fly there or anything." I was getting tired of her being so stuck up about everything.

"How are these Gondor people supposed to help us anyway?" asked Jamie.

"I'm not sure," Legolas admitted. "I would have taken you to Lord Elrond in Rivendell, but he has gone to the Gray Havens as have many of my kin."

Jamie looked like she was about to make some sort of nasty comment to that, but I silenced her with a look.

We walked in silence. Before we knew it, the sky was growing dark.

"We shall stop for the night," said Legolas, "It is too dark to continue."

I was grateful for that. My feet were beginning to hurt from all the walking.

"We must get an early start tomorrow," the elf continued, "But for now, please rest."


End file.
